What a bold title today!
The truth is, I can't change your world. My world is full of it's own challenges, it's ups and downs. I am engaged, present to my own process of acceptance or taking action or letting go, whatever is required in the moment.
I'm there with you, in this fullness of life. Yet what your experience is, is of your own making. I can stand beside you yet you are the only one present for your own journey, just as I am for mine.
You are the the process itself and only by your own consciousness can the world change. Something is not going to happen to enlighten you. It happens in you because you pay attention, because you care, because you understand that no one else can do this for you in the way and depth you can do it for yourself.
We have all wished otherwise. Please someone take care of us. Our parents, friends, relatives, state, government all turn out to be inadequate, it's true. It's a setup really. Unfair even.
In the end it's you. We grow up and begin to look within. We see how our beliefs and misunderstandings color what we see and feel. We struggle with the alluring demons in our heads that tell us falsehoods and we gather the courage to say no, not now and not ever. We come to terms with our imperfections so we are not just walled off from the truth of our humanness. We accept our dominion over our own lives, weeding out the falsehoods and opening to a deeper sense of our place in the world. We let go and begin to see a new truth, one that includes both our humanity and our innate spirituality.
I love myself so I can now love you. I used to think if I could just love and accept you then I would be alright, that my undisclosed pain would absolve. It didn't work that way for me (let me know if it did for you). My self hatred was so deep and pervasive. I was the one that left the garden of Eden, that left paradise and needed so desperately to go home. It was my fault, there was something wrong with me, driven out of the kingdom for unknown but suspected iniquities. The original sin deal. Sorry it's not true. That lie keeps you small so others can control you. That lie allows you to give your power to others. Either way it's not true. You are meant to have your own life, your own dominion over your world.
We don't know if we even want that. It means taking responsibility for whatever happens within us when it's so easy to blame anything and everything on the outside. Our excuses abound: I'm too busy, worried, broke, inadequate, whatever.
We have been trained to look outside ourselves and for someone else to fix things. Magical thinking. We think that we are powerless to change our world because we have been taught that it's outside ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let's choose to wake up now. "Be the Change". Who you are is your responsibility and your resonance sends a message to everything around you about what you think and feel is true about life. Then that's what you experience. No one else can free you from the lies. Breathe it in and then let it go.
It's all in you.
Inhale and breathe in all the gifts and possibilities of this moment. This is where it starts. Now. Now is here, feel it, embrace it. This is what we have. The fullness begins here, the acceptance starts here, the recognition begins here. Let the lies go and allow yourself to be present. Your life begins anew right now. This is your life, don't be afraid that there's nothing here for you. Allow it to unfold in it's depths and simplicity. Trust life and trust yourself, it's all in you.
Blessings,
Laurel
Showing posts with label The Present. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Present. Show all posts
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Call for Change- Monday, August 25, 2008
As the US political parties gear up for our Presidential elections and everyone is calling for change, I want to propose a call for change also. We’ve not just had 8 years of movement backwards, we’ve had lifetimes of it. It’s time to really move forward by staying in the same place and not doing anything! It’s time to take your life back.
For thousands of years we have left the garden believing we can use our minds to solve our problems. For lifetimes we have left behind the heart as our personal ruler, falsely believing it could not understand enough, fight the fear enough, to save us from the spin put on the world.
The heart is considered weak, ineffective, not really having the power to change our world.
The mind tells us it has the answers, it can solve the problems we face, yet it hasn’t and can’t. More information and more manipulation of information never solves anything. More details about our fears doesn’t change our fear. We’re given a false sense of security to having more and doing more and knowing more yet we are only really content and secure when we’re seeing the world through our hearts.
The mind has held dominion over our hearts and poisoned our view of what it is and the power it has. Maybe the fall of man is just this, the takeover of command by the mind, leading us to be puppets to information and fear. Our current world is all about fearmongering and scarcity. We no longer see the truth of the abundance of our planet and our lives and so this falsehood is perpetuated and we see our world destroying itself. Man can only solve the problems he has created, giving himself the illusion of control.
We attempt to remain mentally positive and generate some good feedback from that yet the foundation of that is not grounded. The heart’s view unfolds a true reality, the mind’s realities only appear real. We easily slip back into fear and trying and work even harder at believing that we can affirm our reality to be what we desire.
I’m not saying that postive thoughts aren’t beneficial, because we know they work alot of the time. Just not all the time. Why? Well because we’ve been taught that we are less than, not enough and weak, etc and the mind doesn’t want to lose control so it sabotoges the love we really are so we’re constantly working at our lives. Maybe you don’t believe that anymore so now it generates distrust of others or your safety in the world. It looks like a gerbil on a wheel and feels like it also. It’s time to get off the wheel dear ones.
“Consider the lillies of the fields, they toil not.” Why? They know they are love, as do the animals and the trees and the earth. Really. Honest. When you are in love, the whole world looks and feels very different. How about us? Who are we?
The trees teach us we are the masters and commanders of our lives, that we are LOVE incarnate. Through the love we hold for ourselves, our lives and our planet, we open to a higher understanding of what we are here for and how to live on this planet. Yet we don’t know how to do this because the mind, which is supposed to be our servant (a brilliant one at that) has become the master and commander. It lies to us about how ineffective the heart is to maintain control.
In the teaching from the Council of Trees, the heart is our center and holds seven levels of understanding and power. It is the key. It informs the foundation of who we are and how we are in the world. It provides us with safety and security because it connects us to the deeper rhythms of all of nature and the universe. When you are in your heart, you lead your life without judgment and you want what’s best for all, naturally. You sit in your heart, BEING all of who you are, having the natural intelligence of the universe creatively avaliable to you. The heart generates trust and the world responds in trust of you. As the heart is present in time, fears from the past and of the future are neutralized. You go home to Eden, to heaven on Earth. From this place you can respond to life with care and wisdom, drawing from a deeper intelligence, the one of your heart. The mind becomes a good servant, as it was originally intended to be, and relaxes, no longer spinning tales of doom and gloom.
This is a change I believe in. This is the only way that works in my life. A thousand years of peace begins in you and reverberates through your family and around the globe. We can do it, saving ourselves and our planet through our love and compassion.
Blessings,
Laurel
For thousands of years we have left the garden believing we can use our minds to solve our problems. For lifetimes we have left behind the heart as our personal ruler, falsely believing it could not understand enough, fight the fear enough, to save us from the spin put on the world.
The heart is considered weak, ineffective, not really having the power to change our world.
The mind tells us it has the answers, it can solve the problems we face, yet it hasn’t and can’t. More information and more manipulation of information never solves anything. More details about our fears doesn’t change our fear. We’re given a false sense of security to having more and doing more and knowing more yet we are only really content and secure when we’re seeing the world through our hearts.
The mind has held dominion over our hearts and poisoned our view of what it is and the power it has. Maybe the fall of man is just this, the takeover of command by the mind, leading us to be puppets to information and fear. Our current world is all about fearmongering and scarcity. We no longer see the truth of the abundance of our planet and our lives and so this falsehood is perpetuated and we see our world destroying itself. Man can only solve the problems he has created, giving himself the illusion of control.
We attempt to remain mentally positive and generate some good feedback from that yet the foundation of that is not grounded. The heart’s view unfolds a true reality, the mind’s realities only appear real. We easily slip back into fear and trying and work even harder at believing that we can affirm our reality to be what we desire.
I’m not saying that postive thoughts aren’t beneficial, because we know they work alot of the time. Just not all the time. Why? Well because we’ve been taught that we are less than, not enough and weak, etc and the mind doesn’t want to lose control so it sabotoges the love we really are so we’re constantly working at our lives. Maybe you don’t believe that anymore so now it generates distrust of others or your safety in the world. It looks like a gerbil on a wheel and feels like it also. It’s time to get off the wheel dear ones.
“Consider the lillies of the fields, they toil not.” Why? They know they are love, as do the animals and the trees and the earth. Really. Honest. When you are in love, the whole world looks and feels very different. How about us? Who are we?
The trees teach us we are the masters and commanders of our lives, that we are LOVE incarnate. Through the love we hold for ourselves, our lives and our planet, we open to a higher understanding of what we are here for and how to live on this planet. Yet we don’t know how to do this because the mind, which is supposed to be our servant (a brilliant one at that) has become the master and commander. It lies to us about how ineffective the heart is to maintain control.
In the teaching from the Council of Trees, the heart is our center and holds seven levels of understanding and power. It is the key. It informs the foundation of who we are and how we are in the world. It provides us with safety and security because it connects us to the deeper rhythms of all of nature and the universe. When you are in your heart, you lead your life without judgment and you want what’s best for all, naturally. You sit in your heart, BEING all of who you are, having the natural intelligence of the universe creatively avaliable to you. The heart generates trust and the world responds in trust of you. As the heart is present in time, fears from the past and of the future are neutralized. You go home to Eden, to heaven on Earth. From this place you can respond to life with care and wisdom, drawing from a deeper intelligence, the one of your heart. The mind becomes a good servant, as it was originally intended to be, and relaxes, no longer spinning tales of doom and gloom.
This is a change I believe in. This is the only way that works in my life. A thousand years of peace begins in you and reverberates through your family and around the globe. We can do it, saving ourselves and our planet through our love and compassion.
Blessings,
Laurel
Ideas of the Mind vs the Heart- Saturday, July 26, 2008
As usual, my mind always has it’s own ideas about what to write. It can run circles around me that are so impressive. Yet when I sit down at the computer, even though I may have believed that a certain idea would be great to write about, I can’t remember any of it! This is the blessing of my soul to be sure. Yes my mind is occcasionally brilliant but that’s not what I or probably you, what to hear.
Unless I ask for another part of me, I just hear the mind. This new journey calls me toward a resonance deeper in my body, where I sit in my heart and listen from there. This is the challenge, to do this every day, to begin to let another part of me be in charge. In longing for the musings of a deeper clearer part of me, the heart offers it’s own intelligence. Yet the mind says not to trust it, so it took alot of small steps to get here, where something else is leading me. Breathing, listening, following in trust even though results were not guaranteed. Well really, that’s what my mind says, it says the mind KNOWS, so I should trust it. Yeah right!
What I know is I am a lot more me, simpler and clearer, without the mind leading. Here is no fear, just embracing what is, being. Just see what happens when the mind gets to take the back seat. Every moment becomes fuller, more vibrant. Here, here, just here. Yes this is all there is. Here is where my heart sings and I can let go of looking for things to be other than they are. There is really no other truth than the present. This is freedom. Being here shapes my whole day, one moment at a time, breath by breath. In trust, I give up searching , I am all that is.
So sorry, the mind had some interesting things to talk about but really what is more important than learning how to BE. To be in love with my life, to feel all my cells sing, to feel so full it’s delicious. Maybe another time this will be more interesting for the mind. Today it’s an all Hearts day.
Blessings,
Laurel
Unless I ask for another part of me, I just hear the mind. This new journey calls me toward a resonance deeper in my body, where I sit in my heart and listen from there. This is the challenge, to do this every day, to begin to let another part of me be in charge. In longing for the musings of a deeper clearer part of me, the heart offers it’s own intelligence. Yet the mind says not to trust it, so it took alot of small steps to get here, where something else is leading me. Breathing, listening, following in trust even though results were not guaranteed. Well really, that’s what my mind says, it says the mind KNOWS, so I should trust it. Yeah right!
What I know is I am a lot more me, simpler and clearer, without the mind leading. Here is no fear, just embracing what is, being. Just see what happens when the mind gets to take the back seat. Every moment becomes fuller, more vibrant. Here, here, just here. Yes this is all there is. Here is where my heart sings and I can let go of looking for things to be other than they are. There is really no other truth than the present. This is freedom. Being here shapes my whole day, one moment at a time, breath by breath. In trust, I give up searching , I am all that is.
So sorry, the mind had some interesting things to talk about but really what is more important than learning how to BE. To be in love with my life, to feel all my cells sing, to feel so full it’s delicious. Maybe another time this will be more interesting for the mind. Today it’s an all Hearts day.
Blessings,
Laurel
Tools of the Trade-Saturday, July 19, 2008
So often when people show up for the free class overview they want to know what tools are going to be taught. There are quite a few tools- meditations, healing practices, working with sacred geometry for creating- taught in the whole series but the ground needs to be laid down before the tide comes in. They don’t work well without some basic principles being embraced.
Tools are useless for the unfound because life is so full of strong winds, it’s easy to lose ourselves. First we have to find ourselves. Until someone is ready to turn within, assuage their thoughts and listen to their bodies and hearts they can’t begin to feed themselves. If they don’t know how to feed themselves every day, throwing a few practices at them is like throwing sand at the wind.
This is a new skill for most of us and I still practice it every day. If I forget to orient myself first thing in the morning, I can find myself at midday feeling lost and uncentered. If I put my heart and breath first, the day can be absolutely magical or at least simple, a quality of being often grossly undervalued. When one doesn’t have this basic understanding it’s hard to teach them. They are not present so there is no foundation on which to lay down a path.
First I teach what the trees taught me; who we are and how to heal ourselves, how to feed ourselves so we are self generating, self filling. This is no small thing and to me, leaves a lot of spirtual practices in the dust. Most of us need the basics, every day, on how to live. Well at least I did and do! All the spirtual understandings then can land, then can be implemented, then can fulfill their promises.
I read recently that most spiritual paths are either about renunciation, transcendence or acceptance. This path is not about renunciation, unless you’re referring to the control of the little mind. It’s not about transcendence unless you’re referring to what’s not real. It is all about acceptance of who you really are and creating your life from your heart and compassion.
I am so honored to be sharing what the trees have taught me and most of all to be living in this grace, this presence of knowing who I am, of being the ‘I AM’.
Please consider joining me in September for the basics on how to live, how to love ourselves and how to bring peace into your life.
Blessings,
Laurel
Tools are useless for the unfound because life is so full of strong winds, it’s easy to lose ourselves. First we have to find ourselves. Until someone is ready to turn within, assuage their thoughts and listen to their bodies and hearts they can’t begin to feed themselves. If they don’t know how to feed themselves every day, throwing a few practices at them is like throwing sand at the wind.
This is a new skill for most of us and I still practice it every day. If I forget to orient myself first thing in the morning, I can find myself at midday feeling lost and uncentered. If I put my heart and breath first, the day can be absolutely magical or at least simple, a quality of being often grossly undervalued. When one doesn’t have this basic understanding it’s hard to teach them. They are not present so there is no foundation on which to lay down a path.
First I teach what the trees taught me; who we are and how to heal ourselves, how to feed ourselves so we are self generating, self filling. This is no small thing and to me, leaves a lot of spirtual practices in the dust. Most of us need the basics, every day, on how to live. Well at least I did and do! All the spirtual understandings then can land, then can be implemented, then can fulfill their promises.
I read recently that most spiritual paths are either about renunciation, transcendence or acceptance. This path is not about renunciation, unless you’re referring to the control of the little mind. It’s not about transcendence unless you’re referring to what’s not real. It is all about acceptance of who you really are and creating your life from your heart and compassion.
I am so honored to be sharing what the trees have taught me and most of all to be living in this grace, this presence of knowing who I am, of being the ‘I AM’.
Please consider joining me in September for the basics on how to live, how to love ourselves and how to bring peace into your life.
Blessings,
Laurel
Being Whole- Monday, May 12, 2008
Today I allow myself to live inside me, to be my own witness of my thoughts, feelings and sensations. There is a whole universe in here if I am willing to sit with it. This life is big enough for one person. It is multidimensional, varied and full of so much potential I am just beginning to see. In paying attention (such a small cost!) I open to what is there, which is much more than I ever thought even existed.
In another lifetime(it feels like that) I didn’t know what to do with all I felt and all I thought and was often scoulded for what was true for me. Don’t think that! Don’t feel that! I didn’t understand what I thought and especially felt were my keys, were my salvation to a deeper experience of life. I no longer dismiss myself and bow to others truths.
The beauty of the world is best seen from deep inside me. This is the attention I used to desire from others that I now am able to give to myself. Now I can be with others wanting nothing from them, able to listen and witness without judgement, able to love my neighbor as myself. In owning my own self, my fears, misunderstandings and doubts, I see with my heart, with compassion. Gratitude reigns supreme as I bow to the wholeness within me. It is in every breath.
Today this is the invitation from The Council of Trees to me and to you. Breathe and feel, breathe and feel.
Blessings,
Laurel
In another lifetime(it feels like that) I didn’t know what to do with all I felt and all I thought and was often scoulded for what was true for me. Don’t think that! Don’t feel that! I didn’t understand what I thought and especially felt were my keys, were my salvation to a deeper experience of life. I no longer dismiss myself and bow to others truths.
The beauty of the world is best seen from deep inside me. This is the attention I used to desire from others that I now am able to give to myself. Now I can be with others wanting nothing from them, able to listen and witness without judgement, able to love my neighbor as myself. In owning my own self, my fears, misunderstandings and doubts, I see with my heart, with compassion. Gratitude reigns supreme as I bow to the wholeness within me. It is in every breath.
Today this is the invitation from The Council of Trees to me and to you. Breathe and feel, breathe and feel.
Blessings,
Laurel
Time to Not Think- Sunday, March 16, 2008
Mercury is in Pisces right now, the same place as when I was born. This lends itself to a mercurial space where thoughts are hard to pin down. It’s a blessing really. When I was younger, I would get lost here and commune with other seemingly unseen aspects of life. As adulthood approached, I attempted to grow up, ie; stay in my thinking self and avoid this more fluid place. It is not an easy place to accomplish much.
Now I enjoy the ease of letting go of all that thinking and allow myself to drift around, all the while tuning into my breath, my true ground. As always the breath and my body are my anchors; the feet that sustain me so I can let go into my imagination and daydreams.
Listening from this place to the deeper rhythms of nature and life gives us all a break from the overfocused and linear reality that we too often call home. That is not reality, it’s just a construct to help us feel safe and in control. Reality is something deeper and contains both the form and the formless. Out of the formless all creation is born. This is a great time to tune into the unknown and allow our creativity to bloom by allowing what is to be mercurial and not so pinned down.
Let’s relax the mind and sit in our beingness and call this home. Loving what is, being present in acceptance and appreciation calls us to a new home. Today is a great day to be alive:)
Blessings,
Laurel
Now I enjoy the ease of letting go of all that thinking and allow myself to drift around, all the while tuning into my breath, my true ground. As always the breath and my body are my anchors; the feet that sustain me so I can let go into my imagination and daydreams.
Listening from this place to the deeper rhythms of nature and life gives us all a break from the overfocused and linear reality that we too often call home. That is not reality, it’s just a construct to help us feel safe and in control. Reality is something deeper and contains both the form and the formless. Out of the formless all creation is born. This is a great time to tune into the unknown and allow our creativity to bloom by allowing what is to be mercurial and not so pinned down.
Let’s relax the mind and sit in our beingness and call this home. Loving what is, being present in acceptance and appreciation calls us to a new home. Today is a great day to be alive:)
Blessings,
Laurel
Loving Self and Loving Others-Sunday, March 2, 2008
We are taught that it is important to love and be kind to others. Yet real love is not a thought or mental exercise so much as it’s a feeling. There is a big difference here. To be authentic it must come from our love of self, overflowing from the cup that is full. Here is the paradox. If we focus on ‘loving’ others, there is no real love to be found. When we focus on loving ourselves, it can feel selfish at first but then our cup begins to be full and our hearts overflow toward others. The recipient of this love knows that it is unconditional and real, knows that their true self is being seen. Our oneness is being acknowledged.
Sometimes the recipient can’t feel it because they don’t love themselves yet. We all want to be loved and the love we need comes from within, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat, from the wellspring of who we really are and the gift of being present with ourselves. It can feel so uncomfortable to focus on one’s self that most of us have to be gently talked into it. It takes a little time and perseverance because the mind says it’s wrong and throws old wounds in our face, saying that’s why we don’t go there. Yet there is the way through. The way around is not working, really. This is the hardest yet most important thing we can ever learn and do. It doesn’t have anything to do with accomplishments, our weight, intelligence or degrees. oday consider the gift of loving yourself by paying attention, being present, appreciating who you really are. Breathe into the present and allow yourself to be okay right now. This is all there is.
Blessings,
Laurel and The Trees
Sometimes the recipient can’t feel it because they don’t love themselves yet. We all want to be loved and the love we need comes from within, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat, from the wellspring of who we really are and the gift of being present with ourselves. It can feel so uncomfortable to focus on one’s self that most of us have to be gently talked into it. It takes a little time and perseverance because the mind says it’s wrong and throws old wounds in our face, saying that’s why we don’t go there. Yet there is the way through. The way around is not working, really. This is the hardest yet most important thing we can ever learn and do. It doesn’t have anything to do with accomplishments, our weight, intelligence or degrees. oday consider the gift of loving yourself by paying attention, being present, appreciating who you really are. Breathe into the present and allow yourself to be okay right now. This is all there is.
Blessings,
Laurel and The Trees
Knowing- Wednesday, February, 22, 2008
The more I live in awareness of my body and breath, the more I realize how much I’ve been missing. This feels real and grounded and though I don’t know much here, what I do know is okay and plenty. The rest I trust will be shown if and when needed.
This is the difference between living in your body and living in your mind. The mind always wants more. Only when you have more, can you maybe feel safe. It’s so hard to let go and trust when the mind’s in charge. There is such an undercurrent of lack and fear and the need for more and more data. When does the mind feel safe, especially since it takes what we’ve previously learned and says, oh no, this is never going to to be okay? The mind wants to know things but that knowing is not grounded in reality, so there is this false sense of understanding that is not based on experience. The mind specializes in the past. My past is not clean and clear, how about yours?
Living in my body and breath, I live here, in the present, with the trees and all the animals and the living earth all around me and I am aware of it! I am present to this fullness that is this miracle every moment. Please join me, this is so much fun!
Blessings,
Laurel
This is the difference between living in your body and living in your mind. The mind always wants more. Only when you have more, can you maybe feel safe. It’s so hard to let go and trust when the mind’s in charge. There is such an undercurrent of lack and fear and the need for more and more data. When does the mind feel safe, especially since it takes what we’ve previously learned and says, oh no, this is never going to to be okay? The mind wants to know things but that knowing is not grounded in reality, so there is this false sense of understanding that is not based on experience. The mind specializes in the past. My past is not clean and clear, how about yours?
Living in my body and breath, I live here, in the present, with the trees and all the animals and the living earth all around me and I am aware of it! I am present to this fullness that is this miracle every moment. Please join me, this is so much fun!
Blessings,
Laurel
Haiku and other Musings- Monday, February 18, 2008
Today I fill up
with a deep delicious breath
No need to eat more
(C) Laurel 2008
I am so loving my life.
Saturday I went to the woods with a friend and after walking a few miles, we heard a hawk calling. We followed the sound down a overgrown path and there, right in front of us, was a hawk sitting in a tree branch at about 20 feet. This hawk was facing away from us but kept turning it’s head to look back at us and sat there for about 10-15 minutes while I took pictures. There is something precious about standing in a hawks world, allowing the layers of it’s being to inform my world, that was so exquisite.
The day before, driving into the countryside, I saw a hawk spreadeagled in front of the car in front of me. Later, when I asked the meaning, asked if it meant if I needed to slow down, the message was no, other people need to slow down and listen. I am to keep going, listening, writing, playing and feeling this big world.
Life is a precious surprise and some days it feels that even my breath is so deep that I need nothing else. I am beginning to see how being present allows deeper layers of everything to open before me and how much trust and love that really does take.
It takes everything. I have a photo poster on my office wall that says “Only those who can see the Invisible, can do the Impossible”, and another that says “An open heart is a condition of simplicity…costing not less than everything” (Osho).
Love your life and everything in it and see it bloom before you in joyful radiance. It is yours, your treasure, your hope.
Blessings,
Laurel
PS: I redid the haiku since I didn’t quite have the syllables right per line…
with a deep delicious breath
No need to eat more
(C) Laurel 2008
I am so loving my life.
Saturday I went to the woods with a friend and after walking a few miles, we heard a hawk calling. We followed the sound down a overgrown path and there, right in front of us, was a hawk sitting in a tree branch at about 20 feet. This hawk was facing away from us but kept turning it’s head to look back at us and sat there for about 10-15 minutes while I took pictures. There is something precious about standing in a hawks world, allowing the layers of it’s being to inform my world, that was so exquisite.
The day before, driving into the countryside, I saw a hawk spreadeagled in front of the car in front of me. Later, when I asked the meaning, asked if it meant if I needed to slow down, the message was no, other people need to slow down and listen. I am to keep going, listening, writing, playing and feeling this big world.
Life is a precious surprise and some days it feels that even my breath is so deep that I need nothing else. I am beginning to see how being present allows deeper layers of everything to open before me and how much trust and love that really does take.
It takes everything. I have a photo poster on my office wall that says “Only those who can see the Invisible, can do the Impossible”, and another that says “An open heart is a condition of simplicity…costing not less than everything” (Osho).
Love your life and everything in it and see it bloom before you in joyful radiance. It is yours, your treasure, your hope.
Blessings,
Laurel
PS: I redid the haiku since I didn’t quite have the syllables right per line…
The Veil- Saturday February 2, 2008
One of the concepts that I’ve looked at in spiritual and religious teachings over the years has been the idea of a veil of separation between us and “God” that is supposedly an illusion. This illusion then has to be my illusion as I now claim everything to be my creation in order to see more clearly what I believe in. If I believe the veil to be an illusion then it can be my choice to see through that veil or not.
This is what I have done in my relationship with nature. A few years back in a stroll with a friend around a lake, in desperation to get out of the over focus on mental ramblings and be present with myself and nature, I decided to drop the veil. Of course, I didn’t know it would work. Immediately everything seemed to come alive. The birds came out of the background and the trees felt as present with me as the other people walking by. After a while the effect faded, but now I’m understanding that it was my focus and presence that left.
A few days ago, a simlar thing happened. I was working/playing outside around my house, emptying rain barrels, hauling water from the back barrel to the front trees, refilling bird feeders, etc. I had heard a few birds around the back early on but as I was taking my last trip to the back patio, I asked the birds if they were OK with the food I’d been putting out. There began a symphony of sound, loud and a bit overwhelming really. I drank in the love nature has for me and then said “OK, Ok, I will keep putting out the bird seed!” The cacophony died down.
I know that all of nature is alive and yet, like most of us, I walk around thinking I am separate from it, that it isn’t really real but as a backdrop for my real life, which is what anyway? My arrogance is huge when it comes to nature. I assume that what I do, what I eat, etc is a small matter, yet I can look at what’s happening ecologically and understand that it really is each and every thing I do that matters. If I believe in that veil of separation then I can drive a gas guzzler, import my food from South America and ignore all those pesky recyling fanantics. I can separate cause from effect because I don’t live in the present where everything is sacred and everything does matter. Matter is what we have been given to play with and energy is our tool. If we are not present, we can’t see it, we can’t feel it so we are dissociated from our lives. We can’t feel the answer because we are not accessing a creative solution from the depths of our inner knowing, which is connected to all things. We don’t care. We have left HOME and are living in an illusion.
Time to come back to a real life. Time to breathe and love again. Drop the veil. All of nature is waiting for you, ready to love you. Ready to see how you define love and accepting everything you give her with a full embrace.
Blessings from The Council of Trees,
Laurel
Comments:
Asia Guyer
I love that you shared this experience.We all need to be reminded of how lifes interconnections are subtle but very present in every moment, and can be felt and yes- sometimes heard, if we just slow down and pay attention. Nature is constantly communicating and we need to listen.
This is what I have done in my relationship with nature. A few years back in a stroll with a friend around a lake, in desperation to get out of the over focus on mental ramblings and be present with myself and nature, I decided to drop the veil. Of course, I didn’t know it would work. Immediately everything seemed to come alive. The birds came out of the background and the trees felt as present with me as the other people walking by. After a while the effect faded, but now I’m understanding that it was my focus and presence that left.
A few days ago, a simlar thing happened. I was working/playing outside around my house, emptying rain barrels, hauling water from the back barrel to the front trees, refilling bird feeders, etc. I had heard a few birds around the back early on but as I was taking my last trip to the back patio, I asked the birds if they were OK with the food I’d been putting out. There began a symphony of sound, loud and a bit overwhelming really. I drank in the love nature has for me and then said “OK, Ok, I will keep putting out the bird seed!” The cacophony died down.
I know that all of nature is alive and yet, like most of us, I walk around thinking I am separate from it, that it isn’t really real but as a backdrop for my real life, which is what anyway? My arrogance is huge when it comes to nature. I assume that what I do, what I eat, etc is a small matter, yet I can look at what’s happening ecologically and understand that it really is each and every thing I do that matters. If I believe in that veil of separation then I can drive a gas guzzler, import my food from South America and ignore all those pesky recyling fanantics. I can separate cause from effect because I don’t live in the present where everything is sacred and everything does matter. Matter is what we have been given to play with and energy is our tool. If we are not present, we can’t see it, we can’t feel it so we are dissociated from our lives. We can’t feel the answer because we are not accessing a creative solution from the depths of our inner knowing, which is connected to all things. We don’t care. We have left HOME and are living in an illusion.
Time to come back to a real life. Time to breathe and love again. Drop the veil. All of nature is waiting for you, ready to love you. Ready to see how you define love and accepting everything you give her with a full embrace.
Blessings from The Council of Trees,
Laurel
Comments:
Asia Guyer
I love that you shared this experience.We all need to be reminded of how lifes interconnections are subtle but very present in every moment, and can be felt and yes- sometimes heard, if we just slow down and pay attention. Nature is constantly communicating and we need to listen.
Being Present- Monday, January 21, 2008
Dear Friends,
Today is a good day to spend a little time with yourself. Today is a new beginning, a day like no others. Give yourself this gift of today. Take a few deep breaths and settle into your body. What cozyness is there? Are there any places of tension? Breath into the tension and let it go now. Today is your day so take with you just what you want and let anything else go. ( I drop my shoulders ) Listen carefully to the magic in you, the wondrous workings of your physical body and the subtle feelings that move through it. Wiggle a little, access the little child in you who wiggled alot all day long. Maybe wiggle a lot if it feels good:)
I want to share a story that helped me understand the wealth of depth and memory of what’s in our bodies. Quite a few years ago in a CranioSacral Therapy class for treating children, I had an unusual experience. In order to teach us about the birth process, we were lead back through our own birth. We did this a few times, starting at conception and feeling and moving with the process as it flowed. We were working in groups of two and I had teamed up with a kind gentle man that I felt I could trust to let go deeply. It was instructive to feel so much of what was going on with my parents and feel the whole journey from start to finish.
As I came out the birth canal, the whole room reaked of cigarettes. I kept asking my partner if he smoked and he didn’t at all, never had. Where was the smell coming from? It was coming from me, from my memory, from my cells memory! I knew my Mom smoked during the pregnancy, but this was NOT from my thoughts, this was from me. It took me awhile to really understand that it’s all in us, really it’s ALL in us. Every memory, every smell, taste, touch, sound is planted in you way before your cognitive processes develop and function well. This may be forgotten as we grow into our minds and we start allowing our thoughts to rule what we attune to each day.
So today take back your body, it’s not just something your mind drags around to do what it wants. It’s you, an important part of you and keeper of so many feelings and understandings. It is your master puzzle. Pick up a piece now and take it in, fully allowing yourself to be with it. You can accept it now, you have the maturity and insight to know it doesn’t have to run you anymore. Breathe it in and then let it go. Your life now is what you choose and all the memories can be opened gently so their weight doesn’t hold you back anymore. Now you belong here, now you are free.
Blessings,
Laurel
Today is a good day to spend a little time with yourself. Today is a new beginning, a day like no others. Give yourself this gift of today. Take a few deep breaths and settle into your body. What cozyness is there? Are there any places of tension? Breath into the tension and let it go now. Today is your day so take with you just what you want and let anything else go. ( I drop my shoulders ) Listen carefully to the magic in you, the wondrous workings of your physical body and the subtle feelings that move through it. Wiggle a little, access the little child in you who wiggled alot all day long. Maybe wiggle a lot if it feels good:)
I want to share a story that helped me understand the wealth of depth and memory of what’s in our bodies. Quite a few years ago in a CranioSacral Therapy class for treating children, I had an unusual experience. In order to teach us about the birth process, we were lead back through our own birth. We did this a few times, starting at conception and feeling and moving with the process as it flowed. We were working in groups of two and I had teamed up with a kind gentle man that I felt I could trust to let go deeply. It was instructive to feel so much of what was going on with my parents and feel the whole journey from start to finish.
As I came out the birth canal, the whole room reaked of cigarettes. I kept asking my partner if he smoked and he didn’t at all, never had. Where was the smell coming from? It was coming from me, from my memory, from my cells memory! I knew my Mom smoked during the pregnancy, but this was NOT from my thoughts, this was from me. It took me awhile to really understand that it’s all in us, really it’s ALL in us. Every memory, every smell, taste, touch, sound is planted in you way before your cognitive processes develop and function well. This may be forgotten as we grow into our minds and we start allowing our thoughts to rule what we attune to each day.
So today take back your body, it’s not just something your mind drags around to do what it wants. It’s you, an important part of you and keeper of so many feelings and understandings. It is your master puzzle. Pick up a piece now and take it in, fully allowing yourself to be with it. You can accept it now, you have the maturity and insight to know it doesn’t have to run you anymore. Breathe it in and then let it go. Your life now is what you choose and all the memories can be opened gently so their weight doesn’t hold you back anymore. Now you belong here, now you are free.
Blessings,
Laurel
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